She's here!! Our Claire Kaylin Watts was born on January 8, 2014 at 5:23pm. She weighed 8 lbs 5 oz and was 21 inches long. We are so thankful to God for blessing our family with this sweet girl. She's loved more deeply than she'll ever know!
Claire's Birth Story:
In the days leading up to Claire's due date I found myself getting quite impatient at times. I was ready to hold my baby in my arms. Past ready! I was having fairly consistent contractions, but they weren't painful at all. I kept hoping that the contractions were the start of something, but then they always stopped. I had a check-up on my due date (Monday, January 6th) and found out I was 3 cm and 70 percent effaced. At that check-up we scheduled my induction for January 8th, if I didn't go into labor before then. I was a little nervous about being induced because I hadn't ever experienced that before, but the doctor felt confident that it would go smoothly since I had already had two successful v. deliveries.
My parents came in Tuesday night, since I was to be induced early Wednesday morning. Bert and I woke up sooo excited about meeting our girl. We were leaving for the hospital by 6am. Mimi and Papa stayed with the girls...fed them breakfast, got them ready for the day and then headed to the hospital by about 9 when a sweet couple from our church came to the house to relieve them. A big thanks to everyone to helped to take care of our big girls throughout the day so that the grandparents could be with us at the hospital! Bert's parents left Jackson at about 4:30am (they were so excited about meeting their newest granddaughter and didn't want to get stuck in Atlanta traffic) and made it to the hospital just after we were getting checked into a room at about 7:30.
Once I was settled in my labor and delivery room (which was very nice and spacious) they asked a million questions, started my IV and started my pitocin almost right away. The contractions were coming every few minutes, they slowly increased my dose of pitocin about every thirty minutes, but I still wasn't in pain. I hadn't had anything to eat since about 7pm the night before (I couldn't eat or drink after 12am). Why I didn't eat a midnight snack I'll never know! I was so hungry, but other than that I was pretty comfortable. The four grandparents were coming in and out of the room throughout the morning. The doctor came in to check me at about 10am and I was still 3 cm and 70%...I hadn't made really any progress from my appointment on Monday other than that Claire had dropped lower. Just before noon the doctor came back in and said he thought it was time to break my water. I was all for that plan!! He broke my water and within about 5 or 10 minutes (3 or 4 contractions) my contractions were all the sudden VERY painful. I was already having a hard time talking through them...they were coming about every 2 or 3 minutes. I was planning on getting an epidural, but I couldn't decide when I should get it. I wanted to make sure that I didn't slow anything down by getting the epidural too soon. My OB and all the nurses felt totally confident that I was fine to get my epidural at any point. I have a history of having fast labors once my body kicks into active labor, so I didn't want to wait too long. After about 30-40 minutes I called for the nurse to let her know I was ready for my epidural. The anesthesiologist and his team arrived about 15 minutes later. I was ready. I leaked spinal fluid when I got an epidural during Hannah's labor and ended up with a spinal headache. The spinal headache was no joke and when you throw in a 2 day old and no sleep, etc....one of my prayer requests for this labor was that I would have NO trouble with my epidural. Very thankful that God answered that prayer...I didn't leak spinal fluid and the epidural worked perfectly. The doctor came back in to check me about 1:30pm and I was a 5...progress! I was even able to take a short nap that afternoon.
They checked me at about 4:15 and said I was 8 cm. She said that she wouldn't be surprised if in the next couple contractions I was at 10. She told me to let them know if I started feeling a lot of pressure. Our nurse jokingly showed Bert where the gloves were in case he needed to catch Claire. Ha. They said they would be back in at about 5pm and we'd get ready to have a baby. Within about 10 or 15 minutes I was feeling so much pressure. I waited a few minutes and decided I needed to call the nurse. I honestly wasn't sure if Claire Bear was going to wait until 5?! The nurse arrived just before 5, checked me and said we were definitely ready to go. She started getting everything ready and had me push one time. She quickly told me to not push again, called the doctor and told her we were ready to have a baby. Dr. DuBose (who we love) came in and was finishing up a text message in the corner of the room. I was actively trying not to push, but I honestly felt like she might just come out on her own. Our nurse said, "Dr. DuBose, you really need to get over here." Claire was already crowning. Dr. DuBose didn't realize quite how close we were and quickly ran over. I maybe pushed through 2 contractions. Our doctor kept telling not to push much. She said Claire was coming out on her own and she wanted to keep me from tearing if she could. Our doctor and nurse kept telling me (while I was pushing) that we needed to have 10 more kids. They said that the delivery just went too beautifully to stop at 3. Haha! The miracle of childbirth is an unbelievable experience, but the middle of delivery is not the prime time to try to talk a mom into more kids!:)
At 5:23pm our sweet girl arrived!! One of my major prayer request, especially in the weeks leading up to Claire's birth, was she would start crying as soon as she was born. I let several of my friends know to pray for this, and God answered this prayer too. Hannah gave us a scare when she was born and wasn't breathing, they had to call in the special care unit to get her breathing on her own....it was a very scary first 20 minutes and I didn't want to re-live it with Claire. I had told our nurse how much I wanted to hear her cry when she was first born and she jokingly said that if she wasn't crying that they would give her a good spanking and tell her that her Mama told them to do it. I let her know that they had my full permission...I just wanted to hear her sweet cry! Claire started crying almost immediately (without the spanking)! So thankful!!
They handed her right to me! She was and still is so beautiful and precious and perfectly made by her heavenly Father. The picture below was taken just seconds after her birth.
She was about 10 minutes old in the picture below. I am one proud Mama in love with my little girl!
The hospital does something called the "Magic Hour" where the baby stays on the mom's chest for at least an hour. They clean the baby off, check her vitals, everything all while the mom is holding the baby. They do their official weight check after Mom and baby have been moved to a different room. We asked our nurse (Can I just say that we were seriously blessed in this area as well?! We had been praying for the nurses and doctors that would deliver Claire and we couldn't have been blessed with a more kind, competent, and caring nurse. We loved her!!) if she would do a quick unofficial weight check on her since it would be a couple hours before we were moved to our other room.
Claire wasn't totally sure what was going on?!
Claire with our nurse just after she was weighed.
Bert was pretty excited to have his baby girl here. I can't imagine a more loving, supportive, or encouraging husband. I feel like this every day, but especially during the labor and deliveries of our three girls. He doesn't leave my side. I'm so thankful for him and I could not do it without him!
Claire's official birth weight was 8 lbs 5.4 oz.
Claire, I'm just so thankful and in awe of God's blessings to us through your sweet life. You've already brought us so much joy! We're praying that one day you would put your trust in the One who created you and loves you even more than we do. We pray that you would be a bright light for Him!
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